1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an image data processing system to process the image data photographed by a digital camera.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a digital camera by which the light is converted into electric signals by an optical sensor such as a CCD, and the electric signals are converted into the digital data and stored in a storage medium such as a flash memory, is known. When the digital camera is used, the storing of the image data or various workings can be easily carried out by an individual using a personal computer (PC) or the like, and by outputting the image by a printer connected to a personal computer, or a printer which can be directly connected to the digital camera, the photograph can be printed without development of the film. According to the improvement of the print quality of the printer, the photograph whose quality is so high that there is almost no difference to the silver halide photograph, can also be printed.
The light inputted from the photographic object into a optical sensor such as a CCD, is converted into the digital data by an A/D converter, and after it is processed by color compensation and data compression, the digital camera stores it in the flash memory housed in the digital camera or the storage medium such as a memory card which is detachable from the digital camera, as the image data.
The number of images which can be stored in the flash memory or the memory card, which is installed in the digital camera, is about from several number of sheets to several tens of sheets, although it is changed depending on the degree of the compression of the image data, that is, the image quality. Accordingly, in order to store the more image data, it is necessary that the capacity of the flash memory housed in the digital camera is increased, however, the capacity of the flash memory which can be housed in the digital camera is limited.
Further, there is a digital camera in which a detachable memory card is installed, instead of housing the flash memory in the digital camera. However, because the cost of the memory card is high as compared to the photographic film of the silver halide camera, there is a problem that, when the large number of memory cards are purchased, the purchasing cost of the cards is increased.
Recently, by the aid of the rapid spread of note type personal computers and portable terminal equipments, and the substantiality of the communication circumstance such as the internet, by transferring the image data photographed by the digital camera to the large capacity memory section such as a disk of a server computer by using the communication line such as a telephone line, and storing it, a system by which the capacity of the memory card installed in the digital camera is suppressed to the minimum, is proposed.
However, even when the memory section of the server computer has a large capacity, the memory capacity of the memory area allotted to the user individual is limited, and when the memory area allotted to the user is full by the image data, it is necessary that the image data stored in the memory section is downloaded in the local disk of the personal computer prepared by the user individual, or the memory section of the image data memory apparatus is newly purchased. Further, there is a problem that, because the unnecessary old image data which is previously photographed is stored in the memory section, the newly photographed image data can not be stored in the memory section.